Orrin Hatch: madam president, i just wanted to note floor. the presiding officer: morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume the motion to proceed to h.r. 1388 which the clerk will the to the consideration of h.r. 1388, an act to reauthorize and

Orrin Hatch: reform the national service laws. mr. hatch: madam president? the pr senator from utah. mr. hatch: madam president, i would like the following remarks placed immediately following the remarks of the distinguished senator from the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hatch: in morning business. as in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hatch: when i came to the senate back in 1977, paul

Orrin Hatch: sarbanes was a colleague who came with me. there's no doubt that this is one of the true sages of the senate. a brilliant man, tremendous ability, served with distinction in this body. and i think one of the reasons why paul was so successful in

Orrin Hatch: moved by the fact that her , all of u and feel sarbanes, beuse that was a close relationship, one that was exemplary to all of us. and she was a great supporter of his, as he served in t i used to kid paul all the time because i said, "paul, when are you going to laugh?

Orrin Hatch: when are you going to smile?" because he was always so serious. and i u time about that. he would get this wide grin on his face and he knew what was talking about. but he was serious, and so was his wife. e was a great human being. i just personally want to express my condolences to paul and his family, because i know

Orrin Hatch: outside of morning madam president, i'm pleased to rise once again to speak today on the senate substitute amendment to h.r. 1388, the as we heard in the statements last night, this legislation has been in the works for a long time. i was glad last night to see it clear the first hurdle by a wide margin. this is truly a bipartisan piece

Orrin Hatch: of legislation. in my opinion, it's probably the most bipartisan bill we'll see on the floor this year. at every stage, republicans and democrats have been working together to craft this legislation in order to bring it where we are -- where we have it today. it is my hope that when all is said and done, we'll see a broad coalition of senators voting in favor of the bill.

Orrin Hatch: however, i do know that as of right now not tphefrpb this chamber is -- not everyone in this chamber is convinced that this legislation is the right thing to do. so i want to take a few moments this morning to address some of the major arguments i've heard by those who appear to oppose the bill. many of those appear to be from the republican aisle. i believe my argument will be

Orrin Hatch: relevant to both sides. one argument is that the bill will impose mandatory requirements on our citizens. this is the easiest to refute. despite the rumblings of the black helicopters some imagine to be circling overhead, every program in this bill is 100% voluntary. in our country no one is compelled to give service and

Orrin Hatch: this bill will not change instead it will give new an expanded opportunity for people who voluntarily decide to participate. another more substantive argument i've heard is that given our current economic climate and budget dicit, it is simply the wrong time to invest in national service. the government, these folks

Orrin Hatch: argue, does not have a rule in these areas. i respectfully disagree with that. i share the desire of many of my colleagues and my constituents to see more fiscal discipline here in washington. in my view an important aspect of fiscal discipline is investing in ideas that work. i support this legislation because i believe that volunteer

Orrin Hatch: service is such an idea. as has been stated 75,000 national service participants leveraged an additional 2.2 million volunteers every year. volunteers not subsidized by the government in any way. that is a significant human capital return on

Orrin Hatch: relatively speaking a modest government investment. there havee been a number of studies that have shown for every dollar spent in service there is a dz 1-dz .62 return on that is in 0 social payback to our society. whether it is students being

Orrin Hatch: tutored, homes being built or in the form of disaster relief, it is an investment that pace for itself. i have -- pays for itself. i have heard people talk about national service as -- quote -- "paid volunteerism." this is

Orrin Hatch: we need to have those who give a few hours throughout the year. most current national service participants are spending a year of their lives serving their country full time and their benefits include a subsistence allowance and education award. the subsistence allowance is

Orrin Hatch: barely a survival stipend, a below poverty payment that is enough to cover only the basic needs and the education award is very modest. it's a very modest benefit to encourage people to seek higher education opportunities once they completed their terms of service. but in exchange for this small

Orrin Hatch: am dedicate themselves full time to solving problems that span the range of human life from dropouts to elder care from homeless to prison recidivism. national service is not a job or career move for these individuals. indeed, no one is getting rich by participating in these programs. those who join these programs

Orrin Hatch: are motivated to give back to this great country to engage in their local communities and improve the lives of those who are in need. once the fact, the work of those in the national service program has a multiplying effect. if the measure of this

Orrin Hatch: legislation was solely to provide national service slots fo250,000 individuals, i don't think we'd have much to be proud of. but these national service participants will leverage millions volunteers and hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment in the nonprofit sector. the success of the program shall not be measured by the number of

Orrin Hatch: people who participate, but by the work they accomplish. other potential opponents of the bill have tried to label this bill as another -- quote -- "acorn bill." of course they do so without receives money under national service programs. ough i'm not one to usually

Orrin Hatch: spoil a good mystery, it has to be stated they do not. in fact, in the first year of the americorps, acorn was forced to return the grant it received under the program because it activities separate from its other work. this was in 1997 and they have not received any funding since. make no mistake, i share the

Orrin Hatch: concerns of a number of my colleagues who taxpayer funds to directly or incorrectly benefit partisan political organizations, abortion providers, or illegal enterprises. and while i believe current law prohibits national service funds from being used for such activities, we wanted to make it crystal clear that this would

Orrin Hatch: continue to be the case. i believe this was necessaryn order to ensure the bill continues to enjoy bipartisan support. so as part of the managers amendment -- pardon me. we've included a provision listing in detail the prohibited activities for national service participants. specifically under the bill no

Orrin Hatch: registration partisan political activity of any kind or provide abortion services or referrals. in addition any organization that has violated a federal criminal statute is categorically ineligible to benefit under this legislation. like i said, trepidation that some might have regarding these issues. indeed a number of so-called

Orrin Hatch: nonprofit or service organizations engage what many believe happen to be objectionable activities. but i believe this language makes it clear that such activities by national service participants that being the case i believe that every senator can support this bill without such reservations.

Orrin Hatch: now, i hope this puts the issue to rest. i'm sure that we'll -- we'll hear some other bid skeptics of the bill. and i will do my best to address them as they come up. i'm sure that the distinguished senator from maryland, senator mikulski,

Orrin Hatch: i to make sure that these concerns have not authors of this bill. madam predent, as every member of the senate knows the process of drafting, debating and passing legislation is not a scientific one. there is no way of calculating all of the variables and finding all the angles in order to

Orrin Hatch: produce a perfect result. when any group of senators works together on a bill, regardless of whether they are from the same or opposing parties, the best that anyone can hope for is a final product that all the parties will proudly stand behind even if they don't agree on every single section or provision of the bill. the senate's substitute

Orrin Hatch: amendment has the efforts of not only senator kennedy and myself, but of senator enzi and senator and others. like i said yesterday i doubt any bill we consider this congress will be spearheaded by such a diversity of beliefs and idlogies. as one co-author of the bill, i

Orrin Hatch: do not claim that the bill is perfect just the way it is. but i am proud to join my colleagues as we stand behind and work to preserve this project and this product. i certainly respect and will work to preserve the rights of any senator to propose this legislation or propose changes the ability to offer amendments

Orrin Hatch: is one of the richest and most important traditions of the senate. that said i hope that we can keep the changes and to this bill to a minimum. if we add too much or take too much away from this bill, i think that we might jeopardize the coalition we have worked to preserve thus far. like i said, i do not claim that the bill is perfect, but i do believe as it is currently